The Bear Friendly label takes its firsts steps in the Maiella National Park!
On November 9th 2021 a meeting between the Park, WWF Italy and potential beneficiaries of the Bear Friendly label took place in Caramanico Terme, Maiella National Park, Central Italy.
More than 100 potential beneficiaries of the Bear Friendly label among beekeepers and farmers were invited to the meeting and 20 of them participated reporting their opinion and also that of those who could not be present at the meeting.
During the event, the LIFE ARCPROM project and the guidelines for granting the Bear Friendly label were presented, also reporting the main criteria to be respected. The meeting wanted to give ample space to listening to the participants: opinions, possible doubts and suggestions were the protagonists of the final part of the meeting during which the results obtained from the questionnaire administered to the participants during the event were also discussed. The results of the questionnaire showed that the participants are interested in the conservation of the Apennine brown bear, that they are enthusiastic about the Bear Friendly labeling project and they all agree that the label can be an opportunity for their business. Furthermore, 72% of them declared that the most interesting feature of the Bear Friendly labeling project is the link it creates between the conservation of the Apennine brown bear and the producers, making them ambassadors of the message of human-bear coexistence.
After the meeting, all the material distributed as well as the outcome of the questionnaire and the discussion session have been sent to the participants and the potential beneficiaries interested in the project that could not make it to the meeting.
The enthusiasm of the potential beneficiaries and their interest in promoting human-bear coexistence are two issues that made this meeting a first big success of Action C10 in the Maiella National Park, representing a good foundation for the future implementation of the activities.
Human-bear coexistence can only be built working together, this was the spirit of the first meeting and this is the spirit of the Bear Friendly label!
